Warhammer: Second Encounter
by TheFlurryofMelodiousFlames
Summary: Sequel to First Encounter, but can be read without. /A Space Marine finds himself injured on the field and an unexpected ghost from his past comes to his aid.\ Yeah, I'm still bad at summaries. I'm so sorry. Rated T to be safe.


A/N: So, I reread the first part and decided I don't like it at all, so I'm going to post this one early, because I am much prouder of it and love it to pieces. You guys probably won't agree, but it's the best I've written in a very long time.

Disclaimer: I don't own anything but Alyssia and this arrangement of words.

EDIT: Fixed the transitions between the time skips, since my line breaks failed to show up. Twice.

~Starto~

She raced across the battlefield, dodging gunfire as she went. This was her first time out on the field and she had to admit, war was scary. This was exactly why she did not want to join the Adepta Sororitas in the first place. She feared facing the bloodshed that was warfare. She quickly found her target and picked up her pace, coming to a stop by his side and kneeling down next to the injured Space Marine, placing a hand on his helmetless head. She gave him a gentle smile.

"It's okay, Marine, I'll take care of you," she spoke softly as she set to work looking over his wounds, already getting her tools ready to patch him up and get him back into combat.

"A-Alyssia?" the wounded Marine asked weakly. "Is that really you?"

She hesitated. How did this man know her name? "Yes, it's me. Stay still so I can heal you."

"Alyssia!" his eyes brightened. "Oh how many times I've imagined seeing you again!" He lifted a hand to cup her face, but she smacked it away.

"Shut up, I need to focus," she shot him a glare, still having no clue who he was.

"You are an angel sent down to look over me, my love, my blessing," he looked up to the sky dreamily.

"Clearly, you're delusional. Must be a head injury," she said to herself, staying on the task assigned.

He returned his gaze to her. "You don't remember, do you? We have met before. Back on Elexia; years ago. I saved you from being raped and took you back to my hotel room to patch you up."

She gasped. "Lanius, is that you?"

He smiled slightly. "Aye, my love, it's me."

She covered her mouth in her hands, smiling widely. "I never thought I was going to see you again!"

"Nor I you," he smiled softly before going into a coughing fit, snapping her back into focus. She placed a hand on his shoulder, making him lay back so she could get back to healing him. A few moments later, another Hospitaller, accompanied by another Space Marine, joined them. Together, they worked to get him away from the field and into a transport vehicle.

Her superior looked to her. "You go with him; I'll take care of the rest of the fallen."

She gave a nod and climbed into the vehicle, taking Lanius's hand in her own, stroking his hair the entire ride and whispering sweet nothings to the now unconscious Marine. She would most likely stay by his side, caring for him until he regained consciousness.

-TimeSkip-

He groaned slightly as he started to come to, his head pounding mercilessly. Had he hit his head that hard when he fell in combat? He could distinctly remember hallucinating on the field. He could have sworn the young Hospitaller that had taken care of him was Alyssia, the woman he had spent a few weeks laying with in his time back on Elexia, a large planet in the Milky Way Galaxy he was stationed on for reasons he could no longer remember. She had been everything that he ever wanted. He knew he would never love anyone as he loved her, even if he was only able to be with her for such a short time.

Slowly, he opened his eyes, flinching at the bright light. He could tell he had been moved from the field to a medical ward, though where that was located, he did not know. He sensed a bit of movement off to his side before a cool hand lay on his cheek, lightly stroking his skin. He pried his eyes open to look up at the owner of it. He grunted slightly.

"Nurse, I think you've given me too many drugs. I'm still hallucinating," he let his head fall to the side.

"What are you seeing?" the young Hospitaller asked him in a gentle voice.

"I'm seeing the love of my life," he sighed. "I haven't seen her in years. Not since Elexia."

The woman taking care of him smiled brightly. "You'll be happy to know, then, that you aren't on any drugs. Lanius, you have been unconscious for a week. We stopped medicating you a few days ago, deciding it'd be best to let you come to on your own."

His eyes snapped back to her. "So, I'm not hallucinating anymore...?" he examined her closely, trying desperately to convince himself that what he was seeing was not real. "Why did you join? You promised me you would stay out of danger! You told me you would never become a battle sister. You promised to stay on Elexia until I came back for you..."

His voice trailed off at the look she was giving him. "I didn't ask to join. They forced me to. I fought them all the way to the operation room where they sedated me. I woke up a few days later to see their angry faces looking down at me. They wanted to have me executed for impersonating a recruit, even though I had nothing to do with it. You see, my twin sister, the one I spoke of back on Elexia, had been recruited to become a Hospitaller a few months after you left. It is what she wanted to be when she grew up. She had finally gotten the chance to live out her dream. I was so proud of her. But," she hesitated, her eyes tearing up. "But the day before she was meant to go in to get her new transplants and begin training, she was murdered by her fiancé. He was angry with her for joining up and wanted to keep her from going. Therefore, he killed her. When she failed to report in the next day, they tried to find her and mistook me to be her. They did not believe me when I told them I was not her, not until after the operation. When they found out I had been telling the truth and that my sister was dead, they let me off the hook, but decided I was to take her place. I did not want to be here, but I am okay with it now that it has brought be back to you."

Lanius lay there in a shocked silence for a while after she finished speaking. He had heard of this kind of thing happening before, a twin being forced to take over for their deceased sibling against their will, but he never believed it could actually happen. He always imagined it was just something people said to get attention when they felt bad for themselves while at war and no one cared about them. He knew Alyssia well enough to know she would not have joined willingly. She was never one to break a promise; especially not to someone she loved. After a long gap of silence, he spoke up to her.

"I'm so sorry I was not there to protect you both, Lyssi. So very sorry," he took a shuttering breath as he looked up at her, really checking her out. Outwardly, he could not tell what implants she had been forced to take on. As he looked over her, he finally noticed what they were. His eyes fell on hers and filled with sorrow. Her beautiful hazel green eyes were different. Of course they were. They would never allow someone with glasses to go without implants or corrective surgery. Her eyes, his favorite thing about her, were now glassy orbs with whirring mechanisms that allowed her to see. They looked so lifeless, so emotionless, so hallow. He felt like crying just gazing up at them.

She simply smiled at him, a sad, lonely smile that made his heart ache. He wondered what else they had done to her. What else they had changed about her. Was her heart still hers? Were her veins still filled with blood or were they now filled with various poisons and sedatives to be injected through needles on her fingertips? No, they cannot be. Her fingertips were soft on his cheek, not prickly with needles. Or did they make retractable needle implants now? No, he remembered one night on Elexia, right before he had been deported to go to the next planet he was needed on, they had talked about their fears. She was terrified of needles. There was no way she would ever allow herself to have needles implanted anywhere on her body.

So what else about his perfect angel had they taken from him? What other damage had they brought to her? How else had they ruined about her?

As if sensing his internal questioning, she closed her eyes, bringing their faces closer so her nose could nuzzle against his cheek comfortingly to them both. "All they took was my defective lungs and eye sight. New eyes so I can see. X-ray vision, so I can locate broken bones for quicker repair. New lungs so I can exercise and run without going into an asthma attack and allow me to breathe powerful sedatives at will. Everything else is the same as you left me. I am still me."

"I could inspect you and see for myself," he answered slyly, trying to ease the mood of the room.

She giggled slightly. "Not now, my love. You need to rest."

"I have rested for a week! I have had enough of resting! I have not seen you in years. We need to make up for lost time!"

"There will be time for that later, Lanius. For now, you must rest," she was giving him a stern look. He went to argue back again, but his vision was suddenly black, his senses dulled. She had sedated him, forcing him to rest a while longer. He made a mental note never to try to argue with her again in the future before he succumbed to the power of the drugs now in his system.

-TimeSkip-

The next time he came around, he instantly noticed he was no longer in the medical ward, but instead was in his own bunk. He recognized the familiar feeling of his soft pillow under his head and the mattress he was rested upon. He easily sensed a small difference that few others would have been able to catch, were they laying in his bed.

The scent was different. He could vaguely remember it from somewhere, but his hazy mind could not place it at that moment. It was a female scent, definitely not belonging to him. As he recalled, only the Space Marines were authorized to be in this area of the housing dock. He never really understood why there were rules and regulations about who can be in each section. They were all men who go long periods on campaign without so much as lying eyes on a woman. Of course they are going to bring one back to their bunks when they get the first chance. It is only natural.

That thought startled him slightly. He could not remember much of what had happened to him since the last battle. He was badly injured and was transported to the medical ward to be properly taken care of. He had a vague recollection of waking up for a few moments and speaking with the nurse taking care of him before being sedated when he refused to go back to sleep. Why had he refused to sleep again?

His eyes shot open and he bolted out of bed as he suddenly remembered where he remembered that scent from; the same reason he had refused to get more rest when his nurse had requested it.

"Alyssia!"

He now noticed there was the faint sound of water running in his bathroom and stumbled towards the door, listening intently. Inside, he could hear a woman singing as she bathed. He smiled softly. He had greatly missed hearing her voice. He could still remember being back in his hotel on her home planet when he would sit in a chair in the bathroom while she sang to him from the tub. The first few times she had allowed him to sit with her, he had tried to climb into the shower with her, only to be shooed completely out of the room where he could no longer hear her lovely singing voice.

Quietly, he slipped into the room, taking a seat in the chair across from the tub. She instantly stopped singing and called to him. "Good to see you have awakened."

He pouted slightly. "Have I lost my sneaky touch while I was out?"

She laughed slightly. "Not at all. To untrained ears, you would have been completely silent. Have you already forgotten I am a battle sister now?"

He sighed. "I tried to."

She peeked out the curtain at her. "Oh, Lanius, please stop being that way. We are together again. Did you honestly believe they would station you on Elexia again? Or was it that you thought they would release you from service so you could come back to me? Once a Space Marine, always a Space Marine, remember?"

He sighed again. "You have a point there."

She grinned at him, opening the curtain a bit farther, allowing him a nice view of her naked body he had missed so much in his years away from her. "You can join me this time if you wish to."

His eyes lit up and he hurriedly slipped out of his clothing and stepped into the warm stream of water with her. Their lips connected instantly, the pent up passion they had went so long without being able to express exploding into one another. He flinched slightly as something cold suddenly dripped onto his head before cool fingers began to massage his scalp. He pulled back from the kiss and looked down at her. She was smiling up at him as she lathered his hair with shampoo.

"You have not had a decent bath in weeks," she explained calmly as she pulled him more under the spray to rinse out the suds.

He chuckled slightly. "So you are going to give me one, huh?"

She nodded. "And once you are clean, we can get to that catching up you spoke of a few days ago in the medical ward."

He pressed closer to her. "I like the way you think, Lyssi."

She leaned up to kiss him again. Yes, he had missed this a lot while he had been away from her. Now, he finally had the love of his life back and there was no way he would ever let her go again. Not even if the Emperor himself were the one trying to take her away.

~End~

A/N: I hope you guys enjoyed. Part 3 might take a while to write because I realized I wrote it extremely fast and was terribly done and the plot made no sense, so I'm scraping it and writing it all over again in a different direction. Until Next Time. Stay Cool!

~TheFlurryofMelodiousFlames


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